January 21, 2005
SportsMachine #3
Welcome to SportsMachine.
The travelling circus that is professional tennis has hit town and set up base in Melbourne for the first Grand Slam of the calendar year - the Australian Open. Sounding more like a fair dinkum 24-hour convenience store, the two week tournament not only showcases the best players in the world in arguably one of the world’s best sporting cities, it also provides a global snapshot. Rod Laver Arena could be likened to a micro global village.
For starters, there are more Russian teenagers appearing in Melbourne than a mail order catalogue. Andy Roddick is the brash, single-minded American who wants to rule the world. Safin the shady ex-Soviet and Federer the prototypical Swiss, minus the holes - quiet, meticulous, graceful and financially secure. Looks like he’ll be depositing more prizemoney into his numbered account before too long. The kid’s unbeatable.
Lleyton Hewitt. Just like Australia - a diminutive player on the world stage who pumps out his chest to make himself look bigger than he really is. Or is that John Howard?
The AusOpen also puts Melbourne centre stage. If the city was a person, it’s name would be Billy, not silly. While Sydney was throwing everything at a 17-day Olympics, Melbourne was gathering major events like a bestiarist collects medieval books on animals - the F1 Grand Prix, AusOpen, MotoGP, the Commonwealth Games. Add these to the AFL Grand Final and Melbourne Cup and Victoria isn’t so bitter. Lamb sandwich anyone?!
Before you choke on the garlic sauce, let’s get on with the best of the rest. It seems SportsMachine was a little premature in announcing the decline of the NHL - the owners and the players have been talking and just as sunshine gives a ray of hope, the frozen relations of the two parties are thawing. There is talk of a 48-game regular season which would give Nth America it’s first Asterix World Champion since the NBA’s Spurs in ‘99.
The world’s best golfers teed off their season in Hawaii just recently. Vijay Singh of F-one J-one carried over his dominating form from last year, but it won’t be plain sailing for the self confessed workaholic with Tiger, Ernie, Phil and Retief looking to knock Vijay off his mantle as world’s best. So hold onto your hats people, with a tournament played almost every week, you’ll get plenty of opportunity to see middle aged white Americans getting paid exorbitant amounts of money for very little work. Welcome to the US PGA Tour.
The penultimate round of the NFL Playoffs kicks off on the weekend with the AFC and NFC Championship games. Defending champs New England tackle Pittsburgh while Atlanta travel to the City of Brotherly love, Philadelphia, determined to inflict the Eagles’ fourth straight loss in the NFC title game.
Imagine going 0-4 with the Super Bowl in sight. There’s only one thing worse - losing four straight Super Bowls! And the Buffalo Bills achieved that rare feat in the early 90s. No wonder the ice-creams of the same name never lasted. Too easy to choke on.
That’s it for another week. Support Sam Kekovic and eat lamb.
- Greg
Posted by Jess at January 21, 2005 10:23 AM— Filed under Common
Sports Machine
puntastic!